About the Exhibition

A large-scale exhibition devoted to Jan FABRE and Katsura FUNAKOSHI —two of today’s most influential artists. The exhibition will individually explore the spiritual sources of each artist in religious icons appearing in masterworks of history and thereby consider the character of 21st-century man.
Born in Belgium, Fabre remains attuned to the religious paintings of 15th and 16th century Flanders, while exposing the contradictions of human existence through pictures drawn with his own blood and sculptures employing stuffed animals, animal bones, and other organic materials.
The figurative sculptures that Funakoshi carves from camphor wood speak eloquently of the interior landscape of people in our times. They also resonate with the complex emotions visible in images of the Kannon bodhisattva of the late Edo/early Meiji period—a major turning point in Japanese culture.
Marie-Laure BERNADAC, a curator of contemporary art at the Louvre, will co-produce the exhibition. Project advisors TAKASHINA Shuji and FURUTA Ryo will comprehensively examine the art of Fabre and Funakoshi in connection with the historical past. Gathering some 190 works in a meeting of East and West, past and present, the exhibition will transcend time and place to inquire into state of the human spirit today.